Clinton: Republicans 'Almost Spiteful' for Delaying Obamacare

On ABC’s This Week former Clinton administration staffer George Stephanopoulos interviewed former president Bill Clinton, who said that he would never negotiate with Republicans if he were president. “This is the House Republicans and tea party saying, ‘We don’t want to negotiate with Democrats.’ They’re made because they don’t want to negotiate,” Clinton said. “If I were the president, I wouldn’t negotiate over these draconian cuts that are gonna take food off the table of low-income working people, while they leave all the agricultural subsidies in for high-income farmers and everything else. I think it’s chilling. It seems almost spiteful.”

When Clinton engaged in budget battles with Republicans twice, he caved twice: the first time, he agreed to a temporary continuing resolution for several weeks; the second time, he submitted a balanced budget plan. But Clinton said that he was in a different situation than Obama was: “They didn’t ask for the store,” he said of Republicans. “You can’t negotiate over [Obamacare]. And I think he’s right not to.”